


A Formal Curse

by ric2330



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:09:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29824740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ric2330/pseuds/ric2330
Summary: Disclaimer: I am aware of the cultural appropriation of the Quileute Tribe by Stephanie Meyer. I am in no way condoning her actions, and I do my best to be respectful of Quileute culture. That said, the concept of shifters and imprints are integral to the story, even if they are not an actual depiction of Quileute history or legends. I am also aware of the possible offence that my depiction of the Greek pantheon may have. The message from before stands. Please let me know how I can better depict these cultures by commenting or messaging me privately. Thank you!
Relationships: Charlie Swan & Original Female Character(s), Jacob Black/Original Female Character(s), Nico di Angelo & Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 3





	1. Stepford Here I Come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I am aware of the cultural appropriation of the Quileute Tribe by Stephanie Meyer. I am in no way condoning her actions, and I do my best to be respectful of Quileute culture. That said, the concept of shifters and imprints are integral to the story, even if they are not an actual depiction of Quileute history or legends. I am also aware of the possible offence that my depiction of the Greek pantheon may have. The message from before stands. Please let me know how I can better depict these cultures by commenting or messaging me privately. Thank you!

I wasn’t sure how I got here. Standing in front of this two-story house, I stuck out like a sore thumb. Give it a white picket fence, and Stepford here we come. I wasn’t meant for the whole domestic life thing. My ticket was slashing and stabbing monsters into golden dust.  
“I know it’s not much, but I hope you can be happy here, Ana” my newfound Uncle told me, looking out of the side of his eye. He had been doing that the entire drive from Port Angeles. It was kind of annoying, but I got where he was coming from. I mean, learning your dead sister’s daughter who had disappeared seven years ago was picked up by the cops in Jersey is kind of a shock. Besides, he’s a hell of a lot better than my other uncles.  
“No, yeah, it’s great.” It didn’t sound remotely convincing. I had to get better at lying if I was going to keep Charlie from worrying.  
“Alright, let’s get you set up in your new room. It’s up in the attic.” Cool, I could be the weird new chick who lived in an attic. Great new start in a new town. Gods, the kids at my new school were going to have a field day.  
“Let’s head inside, and get you settled. Bells is probably waiting for us down at the diner.”  
An hour later saw us pulling into a small parking lot, into a reserved spot right out front of the door.  
“Perks of being the local sheriff?” I asked with a smirk, extremely amused at the embarrassed look that crawled onto his face.  
“Shuddup,” a red faced Local Sheriff said, holding a glass door open, letting the warm air mingle with its sharp, chilly counterpart.  
“Dude, it's cool, don’t worry. I am just going to have to get used to small town life, being known by everybody. Guess I have to cut back on my illegal activities” I muttered, a small smile on my face. The Sheriff looked at me, face composed of a twitching mustache and narrowed eyes. “I’m kidding! It's a joke.”  
“Better be, Ana. I don’t want to have to see my niece in the back of a cruiser,” Charlie joked back as we reached the table a brunette had been saving for us. “Hey Bells, this is your cousin.”  
“Hey, I’m Anathema. Thanks for waiting up for us. The bus kinda ran late.” As I said this, my eyes took in the thin form of my cousin. She was pretty, in a kind of unassuming way. I searched for similarities between us, but the only thing that stood out was the shape of her nose. I saw it every time I looked in the mirror. That was where the resemblance stopped. Her hair was light, with brushed through waves, compared to my mess of black curls. My eyes were darker than hers, like charcoal against oak wood.  
“It's nice to meet you Anathema.” Her voice was soft. Everything about this girl seemed to be tame.  
“Please, call me Ana. Anathema is a mouthful,” I forced out with a laugh. I had never been good with girls my own age, save for Silena and Annabeth. I hoped I could avoid my usual social awkwardness with Bella. I mean, these are the last remnants of my mortal family, I could at least try to make a connection.  
“Hey Sheriff,” A voice called out from across the diner. “The regular for you and Bella?”  
“Actually Darlene, we’ve got one more with us today. My niece, Mary’s girl, is moving in with us.”  
“No kidding!” The voice from before joined with a woman wearing an apron and a notepad. “Well bless your heart, you look just like your mother! I haven’t heard from Mary in a while, how’s she doing?” Charlie coughed, looking embarrassed and sad at the same time. It was quite the expression.  
“Uh, I don’t exactly know. As good as a dead person can be, I suppose?” I casually threw out. I guess the joke didn’t land, because Darlene let out a huge gasp. And when I say huge, I mean huge. Like, seriously Emmy worthy.  
“No! Oh darlin, I am so sorry!”  
“It’s alright Darlene, it happened a long time ago, I’m fine now.” And that was the truth. I hadn’t even known her. I had stronger feelings for the dead guy my dad made follow me around when I was younger. He didn’t say much, but he was a pretty funny dude.  
“Well, still. Anything you need, hun, and I mean anything, just ask.” Darlene told me, very enthusiastically.  
“Totally, no yeah, got it. Um, can I order?” I asked, looking from Charlie to Darlene and back again.  
“Oh, of course, sweetheart, what would you like?”  
Glancing at the menu, my eyes zeroed in on the one thing I loved most in this world. “I’ll get the grilled cheese, and a cherry Coke, please.” Right then, my stomach rumbled, and the tables around us glanced back at us. “Sorry,” I muttered, my face flushing red.  
“Don’t worry about it, dear. I’ll be right back with your drinks.” With that, Darlene turned away and hurried back to the kitchen, whispering to anyone she passed.  
“That shit is gonna spread, huh?” I whispered to my companions.  
“Language, miss missy.” Charlie reprimanded, a small smile forming underneath his bushy mustache.  
“Sorry Chief.” Bella looked ill, and I had to wonder why. “Hey, Bella, are you okay? You look, um, pale.”  
“What? Oh no, I’m fine. I just, excuse me, I have to use the restroom.” She got up and all but ran to the ladies.  
“Uh, okay. She’s twitchy, eh?” I turned to Charlie, and was surprised at the despondent look on his face. “Charlie? Are you okay? There’s not a flu going around, is there?”  
“No, don’t worry Ana, I’m not sick. Bella’s been really down lately, went through a bad breakup a few months ago. She was hanging out with a family friend, Jacob Black, but for some reason that’s over. I just, I worry about her, that's all.”  
“Damn. Hey, where’s this Jacob kid living?” I asked, thoughts of defending my remaining family running through my head.  
“The La Push reservation, a bit down the road from us. Why?”  
“Oh, no reason.” Charlie caught on to the thoughts in my head, and he pulled me back.  
“No, no you don’t. Listen, just leave them be. They need to work this out by themselves. No use in meddling.” He was insistent, so I conceded and let him have his way.  
“Well, I’ve found that meddling always makes things better, but I’ll follow your lead on this one, old man.”  
“Old, wha-who you callin old, you punk!” He cried, and I laughed as he tried to give me a noogie.


	2. I Learn about my Cousin’s Kinks!

I settled in nicely over the next few weeks. Got a few decorations for my attic hovel, and I made exactly one friend at school. Honestly, that was more than I expected. My opinion of small towns pre-move was that they were closed off, and hostile towards outsiders. It was mostly true, but less extreme than my original belief. My new friend’s name was Sophia Stanley. Apparently her sister used to be friends with my cousin before she got ‘totally depressing’. Today, Bella wanted to go hiking, against her father’s wishes. All I really wanted to do was test out the new laptop Leo had made, and see if it was really monster proof. Instead, I hiked myself up by my bootstraps, and went with my darling cousin to make sure she didn’t get herself killed.   
“Bella, why are we even out here? You don’t even like hiking.” I whined, tired, with sore and achy feet. “We’ve been at this for hours, and I really want to go home.”  
“Don’t be a baby, Ana. And, as a matter of fact, I do like hiking.” She responded over her shoulder.  
“Uh huh. That’s why you’re wearing shoes with no tread, and jeans. Totally reputable hiking gear.” I rolled my eyes. “And since you can’t see my face, I’m rolling my eyes!”   
After what felt like seven hours, we finally reached a stopping point. It was a small meadow, full of dead plants.   
“Jeez, real pretty meadow there, Bells, so glad we came. Can we go now?”   
“He’s not here,” she whispered quietly. “It’s all gone, he’s not here.”   
“Who, Bella? Your ex? What, did you think he camped out?”  
“No, no of course not, that’s ridiculous, I just thought maybe-”  
“Maybe what, Bella? That he would show up out of nowhere professing how he was wrong? Babes, I’m sorry, but he’s gone.”   
“And where has he gone?” A smooth voice called out from across the meadow. Bella’s face grew a shade paler. I whipped around and was met with a man. He was bare chested underneath a brown overcoat. His dark skin was weirdly chalky, like he had covered himself in baby powder after a shower. And most surprisingly, he had blood red eyes. I cursed in my head, because, like an idiot, I left my dagger at home.  
“I’m sorry, who are you?”  
“Laurent.” Bella and I uttered at the same time. I turned to her, flabbergasted.  
“You know this weirdo?” My eyebrows were at my hairline and my eyes were wide.  
“You see, I went by the Cullens’ home, and the house was empty. I was surprised to find you here. Weren't you a sort of pet of theirs?” If I thought my eyebrows couldn’t get any higher, I was wrong.  
“Pet? Bella, what the fuck were you and Eddie into? Gods.”  
“Shut up, Ana. They just went on a trip, they’ll be back. I’ll tell them you stopped by. But I probably shouldn’t tell Edward,” she stumbled on his name. “You know, he’s pretty protective.”  
“But he’s far away, isn’t he?” This freak of nature kept circling around us, like he was a predator and we were prey.   
“Why are you here? I thought you were up in Denali with Irina.” Again, Bella with all these confusing names and places.  
“In truth, I am here as a favor to Victoria.”   
Bella’s voice had a tone of underlying fear as she repeated, “Victoria.” Laurent disappeared from his spot across the meadow, and when I turned to look where he had gone, I found him inches away from my cousin’s face. I yanked her back by her arm and placed her behind me. No way this freaky bitch was getting anywhere near my family.  
“Yes, but I must admit, I am finding myself rather generous, so I will spare you from the pain Victoria would inflict by taking care of you myself.”  
“I don’t know who you are, or who this Victoria character is, but if you value your life, you are going to leave. Now.” If words were knives, mine were freshly sharpened.   
He looked surprised, and a tad offended, when he said “And who are you to tell me what to do, child?”   
“Someone who isn’t afraid to get their hands dirty.” My gaze never left his gross red eyes. He glanced behind me to look at Bella, and when he did, his eyes widened in fear.  
“It can’t be,” he whispered. I was dying to look behind me, but I couldn’t let Laurent out of my sight. Luckily, whatever freaked him out caused him to back away, and as he moved back, huge wolves advanced. I took this distraction as a blessing and I turned around and shoved Bella backwards.  
“Let’s go! Move, Bella, move!” We ran into the forest, and I didn’t stop until we reached her rusty truck. With my hands on my knees, I tried to catch my breath. As I glanced up, my gaze landed on Bella’s stupid face. “You have a hell of a lot of explaining to do, young lady.”  
When we got home from the thrice damned hike, I went straight upstairs while Bella talked to her father about the big ass wolves we had seen. When she was finished gesticulating wildly and freaking out both her dad and Harry Clearwater, who had come for a visit, she joined me in her room.   
“Your ex-boyfriend was a vampire.” I said as she closed her bedroom door. My tone was droll, my face impassive.   
“Uh, yes.” I blinked at the blasè answer.   
My immediate response was “Is there something wrong with your brain?”  
“Excuse me? My brain is perfectly fine!” She yelled at me, offended that I insulted her mental stability.  
“Obviously it's not, because no sane person would date a freakin’ vampire!”  
“I love him! Ok, I love him. And he doesn’t feed off of humans, he drinks animal blood.” She said this as if it meant something to me.  
“Well whoop-de-doo, he drinks animal blood. You do know that it sounds like he is in a cult, right? Because cults drink blood, Bella.”   
“He’s not in a cult, Ana!” She huffed. She began to push me out of her room.  
“Is that why you’re so broken up over him? Because he’s a vampire? Oh my gods, did you want to be a vampire?” I dug my heels into the carpet, trying to keep myself from being moved, but all it did was give me a small case of carpet burn. I kept blurting out questions up until she shut the door in my face. “Rude!” I cried out.


	3. Bella Slaps a Werewolf

A few days passed, and I was finally starting to relax after the whole meadow debacle. I hadn’t planned on having to fight monsters while I was here. I figured since we were pretty close to Alaska, monsters wouldn’t be in Washington. I was mistaken, though, and I resolved that I wouldn’t be caught off guard again. I had just finished going through defensive maneuvers with my dagger and was lying on my bed when Bella burst through the door.   
“Ana, do you want to go to La Push?” I turned my face away from her, and rolled onto my stomach. “Ana, come on, I don’t want to go alone. Are you still mad at me?” At that I craned my neck so I could send her an icy glare. “Okay, you are. Would it matter if I said that you could go see Sue while we’re there? She probably has those cookies you like.”  
“Ugh, fine. I’ll come. But I am not coming for you, I want those cookies. Your ass is grass if she doesn’t have them.” I flipped over and put my feet on the floor, taking off my shirt as I did so. Bella pulled a face, and I stuck my tongue out at her. “My shirt is sweaty, piss off.”  
“What were you even doing up here?” Time to lie my face off.  
“I was working out, you know, a few pushups, some crunches, etc. Anyway, let’s go.” I rushed, throwing a black and white flannel on.

The truck rumbled down the highway, going a whopping 35 miles per hour.  
“Can’t this thing go any faster? We’re like Driving Miss Daisy.” I complained, staring out the window at the neverending trees.  
“I don’t want to miss the exit. Besides, she’s old, and I don’t want to push her too hard.” Bella sighed, attentive eyes looking for the turn to La Push.   
“Why are we going anyway? I thought you and Jack didn’t hang out anymore.” I grumbled, rolling my eyes.  
“It’s JAKE, and we’re still friends, something is just going on with him right now.” She glared at me, and then she made a little happy noise as she spotted the turnoff. She took it, and we began rumbling down a now dirt road.   
“I can’t believe I moved to a hick town with dirt roads.” I sighed, rolling my eyes when Bella, once again, glared at me. “What? It’s not like you’ve lived here forever, Miss Phoenix.” As I finished my quip, Bella pulled over in front of a small red house. She got out of the truck and stormed up to the front door, knocking obnoxiously. It opened, and Billy was on the other side. I couldn’t tell what was said, but Bella became agitated. I got out of the car, worried that she would do something rash. As usual, I was right. A group of shirtless guys walked up to the house, laughing. Bella ran down the stairs and up to the biggest one in the group. I rushed over as fast as I could.   
“Bells, hey, maybe we should go home, this doesn’t seem like a good ti-”  
She bowled right over my sentence, yelling at the guy. “What did you do to him?”  
His jovial face turned into a frown as he regarded her. “What did he say to you?” This really incensed Bella.  
Her voice raised an octave as she screamed at him, “Nothing! He’s too afraid of you to say anything to me!” I put myself in between them, looking at the guy in front of me.   
“I’m so sorry, she’s had a tough week. We’ll get out of your hair.” In a move I hadn’t predicted, Bella shot around me and slapped him straight across the face. “Oh my gods, Bella, what did you just do!”  
The man started to shake heavily, and wearily, I shuffled myself and Bella a few steps back, placing a hand on the hilt of my dagger on the inside of my jacket. I screamed as he exploded into a giant wolf in front of us, and fell back.   
There was a shout, “Bella!” and another huge ass wolf jumped over our heads. I watched in awe as the two huge beasts clashed, biting and snarling and scratching at each other.  
“What the fuck!” I screamed out, and my voice seemed to echo. Everyone, save the big-ass wolves, turned to stare at me. “What, I am not allowed to be surprised by two huge fucking wolves?”  
“Take them to Em’s.” A rough hand gripped my upper arm, hoisting me up. I turned to look at who it was, and I had to crane my neck. I was met with a handsome, scowling face. He shoved me towards Bella, and I turned around to glare at him. He couldn’t see my furious visage because he was running towards the woods, and in turn, the giant fighting wolves.  
“Guess the wolf is out of the bag” uttered a masculine voice from behind me. The comment jolted me back into my body and I whirled around, stalking towards Bella. She looked shell-shocked, and I could understand that feeling.  
“I knew this was a bad idea! Gods, I can’t believe I let you talk me into this! I just wanted to relax, maybe watch a movie, but no, you HAD to drag me into the middle of a wolf fight! What the fuck, Bella?” Her face had begun to screw up during my rant, and when I finished, panting, she responded in kind.  
“You know what, Ana? All of this happened because of you! You show up, Jake stops talking to me! You come with me to the meadow, Laurent shows up! This is all your fault! Ugh, I wish Dad had never found out about you!” My eyes widened, and against my will, tears started to form. All of the foster families, and the bullying, and the knowledge that I was never enough for anyone paled in comparison to this scathing review from my own flesh and blood. It made no sense, I had heard worse before, but it felt different this time. It felt real. I turned back around and walked towards the woods. I heard people calling for me to come back, but I paid them no attention.   
I walked until I couldn’t walk anymore, and then I fell into a seated position in the nook of a tree. I brought my knees up to my chest, and I noticed my face was wet. I didn’t even know I was crying. I just felt empty. I didn’t come back to awareness until I heard a familiar voice call my name. I glanced up and stared into the eyes of my brother.   
“Thema? What’s wrong? Where are you?” My head swiveled, trying to discern where I was, but my eyes took in nothing but trees and dirt and plants.  
“I don’t know, Nico. I kinda disassociated while I was walking.” My brother’s face reminded me that I hadn’t talked to him in a week, and my heart panged with guilt. “How did you even know I needed to hear from you?”  
“Remember that emotional link that Grover established with you and Perce when you were twelve?”  
“Vaguely.”  
“He told me that you were in distress, like major, big time distress, so I went straight to Percy’s cabin.” Percy himself poked his head into the corner of the Iris Message.   
“Hey Ana, you doin’ alright?” I gave a laugh at his question, even though it wasn’t at all funny.   
“Not really. My cousin told me that I was the reason everything in her life had gone wrong and that she wished her dad had never found me.”  
“I’m guessing it wasn’t Thalia who said this? Because if it was, I’ll kick her ass.” I grinned at Percy, knowing that he absolutely would go toe-to-toe with Thalia, and ultimately lose.  
“No, Kelp-for-brains. My mortal cousin, Bella. Plus, even if it was Thalia, you could never take her in a fight.”  
“That is so not true!” Percy defended while Nico laughed. It was good to see my brother smiling, he hadn’t done that much since I first met him. That Solace boy was doing wonders for his disposition.   
“Face it, Bubble-Boy, Thalia would lay you flat on your ass in a minute tops,” Nico teased. I felt better just looking at their faces, grins and eyes lit up with mirth. “Now, Anathema.” Uh-oh, BigBrotherNico was making an appearance. “Do you need me to come get you? You can always come back to camp.”  
“I know, but I can’t leave Uncle Charlie. I just met him, and he is the only mortal family I have left. I can’t just throw that away because of some spat with Bella.” I wiped my face, and stood up. “I’ll be fine, Di’Angelo. Don’t you worry. Tell Grover thanks for me, will you? I really needed that talk.”  
“Okay, if you’re sure. But you better keep in touch young lady.” I rolled my eyes.  
“Just because you’re from the forties doesn’t mean you can boss me around, you punk. I’m technically a year older than you. Love you both.” I swiped my hand through the mist, cutting off their “I love you, too”.


	4. Monsters and Porn

I got back to the house late. I hadn’t noticed at the time, but my stint in the woods took 4 hours. I didn’t even want to know how long it took my brother and Percy to get through to me. The moment I walked through the front door I was smothered in a brown jacket with a patch that scratched my cheek.   
“Hey, Charlie,” I muttered against his chest.  
“Hey, Charlie? Hey, Charlie?” He pushed me away from him, and then settled with his hands on my shoulders. “That’s all you have to say for yourself? What were you doing in the woods so late! I was this close to sending a full on search team!” He brought his thumb and index finger together until they were touching.  
“I’m sorry I worried you, Charlie. I got overwhelmed, and usually when I do that I explore the city, and I guess that translated to the forest.” I stared at my feet, my heart sinking in my chest. I guess this is what parental concern and disappointment feels like.  
“Oh kid,” he choked out, bringing me into another crushing hug. My eyes started to leak, and I cursed inside my head. I thought I was done with all the crying. “Hey, no need to cry. Why don’t you head up to bed, you look like you’ve had a long day. We’ll talk tomorrow.” With that he sent me up to my room, and when I turned back on the stairs to say goodnight, I found him staring at me with the saddest look in his eyes. When I caught him, he turned away and muttered a soft “goodnight”.

I was in my bed when Bella decided to make an appearance. I took one look at her and I knew her apology wasn’t going to be sincere. She stopped at the doorway, looking around my room. It suddenly occurred to me that the only other time she had come in here was when she was dragging me to La Push. We hadn’t hung out much since I moved here. I tried, but she wasn’t interested.   
“So, Ana, about what I said-”  
“Don’t bother. We both know you meant it. I screwed up your life the minute your dad got the call from CPS.” I rolled my eyes at her pathetic attempt at trying to keep her face apologetic. It wouldn’t matter anyway. I got my grudge-holding from my dad, and it is legendary. “Don’t bullshit me, Bella,” I said as she tried to talk again. I stood up and walked over to my closet. “You haven’t wanted to hang out with me other than put us in incredible danger. I tried, you know. I asked if you wanted to go for lunch at the diner, or if you wanted to watch a movie, for the love of the gods, I even asked if you wanted to go shopping! But you said no. Every single time. I’m done, okay, I am done trying when all I get back is nothing. So if you could leave, that would be great.” I pointed to the door, having found the chocolate I had stashed behind my jeans.   
I returned to my bed, aware of Bella opening the door and then proceeding to leave the damn thing open as she left! She really was trying to get on my nerves. I stalked over to it, and slammed it shut. I grabbed the computer Leo had made to do some research on handsome guys that exploded into massive wolves. Nothing but porn showed up. I edited my request into and on the fourth page on Google I found something promising. It was an ebook from a dinky little store in Port Angeles. Quileute Legends was the title. I flipped through the pages, looking for something, anything, that could explain what I had seen. A bold title caught my eye, and I stopped my flipping. I scanned the screen, mind boggled. Slowly, I closed the laptop, and quietly said “Spirit Warriors. Shit.”


	5. I Eat Cookies and Throw a Man Twice My Size onto the Ground

The next morning, I was out of the house before Charlie and Bella had even woken up. I had left a note, to keep Charlie from worrying. I was running through the forest, jumping over logs, and ducking under fallen trees, in order to get back to that little red house from the previous encounter of the wolf kind. By the time I arrived, panting heavily, the sun was beginning to make his ascent. Apollo must have decided he hated me, because there was no cloud cover from his harsh rays. I took a few minutes to regulate my breathing, and wiped my sweaty face with the bottom of my shirt. To be honest, those few steps up to the porch were more intimidating than anything in my entire life. And yes, I am counting both Kronos and Gaea. It was irrational, but irrationality was my specialty. I knocked, once, twice, and when I went to put my fist on the door a third time, it opened to reveal a man in a wheelchair.  
“Hello, sir, I was wondering if your son Jack was home?” Shit, was it Jack or Jake? Oh well, too late now, it already came out of my mouth.   
“Well, my son Jake is home. May I ask who you are, young lady?” He had a deep voice, and it was a hell of a lot more grandfatherly than fucking Kronos.   
“Yeah, yeah of course, right, um, well my name is Anathema Swan, you can call me Ana, I am the Sheriff’s niece, I just moved here and I wanted to introduce myse-I am going to stop talking now.”  
With an amused look on his face, he chuckled and said “Right, Mary’s girl. I was wondering when I was gonna meet you. Come in, come in. I’ll call Jake out for you.” We moved into the house, and I felt weirdly at home. It was warm, and smelled like bonfire smoke. “Jake! Get out here! You’ve got a visitor!”  
I took the time before Jake came out to examine the wall behind me. It was covered in picture frames and told the story of a mother, father, and three kids. Thundering footsteps interrupted my perusal, and when I turned around and met the dude’s eyes, a stinging pain erupted from my wrist. I gasped and pressed my other hand down on the spot where the pain originated from. I looked down and swore under my breath. The last thing I needed was a soulmate mark. Especially with someone who I was investigating under the suspicion of being a monster. Laughter broke me out of my musing. I looked up and saw the man in the wheelchair breaking down in hysterics.   
“What the hell is so funny?” I scoffed out. I pointed at Jake, and said “He looks like someone just pissed in his cereal, and my arm is killing me! What about this situation is funny!”  
“Oh, lord, we need to call Sam,” the old man chuckled.  
“Who the fuck is Sam?”

As it turns out, Sam was the frowny guy from the day before. Jake had yet to say a word, almost equally as frowny as Sam. I was ushered into a different house, and was surrounded by shirtless guys. Being myself, I obviously had to make a comment.   
“Not that I don’t appreciate the view, but why are you all shirtless? Is this a cult? Because I am pretty sure that my cousin’s ex-boyfriend was in a cult, and I am not looking to involve myself with people like him.” A chorus of laughs rang out, and someone pushed their way to the front of the crowd.   
“I think you are going to fit right in, sweetcheeks.” It was the dude Bella slapped!  
“Hey, you’re the guy that exploded into a big ass wolf!” And with that, I mentally returned to my original reason for coming to La Push in the first place. “Speaking of exploding wolves, I was doing some research and came across a particular legend.” A tense silence came over the room, and I shifted uncomfortably. “I just have one question.”  
“And what would that be?” asked the ever-scowly Sam.  
“Y’all don’t kill people right?” was my eloquent response.   
“No, we don’t.” It was the first time I had heard him speak, and it sent shivers down my spine. I had never thought of myself as the type of person to become jelly at the sound of a voice, but you could call me a bowl of Jello. Apparently that was the effect of hearing your soulmate. Isn’t that trippy.  
I turned to look at him and was caught in the pools of chocolate that made up his eyes. It took me a moment to shake off the effect of looking at him, and then I responded, “Dope.” I pointed at Dude-Bella-slapped and said, “You call me sweetcheeks again you can kiss any future progeny goodbye.”   
He laughed and clapped a hand down on my arm. A low growl sounded from behind me, but I paid it no mind. “Sure thing, sweetcheeks.” I grabbed his wrist and whipped around, throwing him over my shoulder onto the ground.   
I smirked down at him and said, “I wasn’t kidding, dude.” I looked up at the rest of the group and was met with wide eyes and gaping mouths. “What?” I asked, stumped as to why everyone was looking at me with unadulterated shock.  
“You just threw Paul, Paul, onto the ground,” one of the other guys said. Ah, I understand now. One does not just throw a man almost twice their size around like a ragdoll in the outside world. “How in the hell did you do that?”  
“Uh, I’m deceptively strong?” I tried to sound like I was stating a fact, but my voice curved up at the end. I am a really bad liar.  
A feminine voice reprimanded them, shouting, “Stop crowding her, you’re probably making her nervous!” They all stepped back to reveal a really pretty woman. Her skin was dark, like theirs, but she had three scars running down her face. “I’m Emily. You must be Ana!”  
“Nice to meet you! I really like your dress.” She was wearing a dark blue dress that complimented her complexion really well.  
“Thank you! None of these animals even noticed,” she joked, looking around at all the men. “Would you like some cookies? I just took them out of the oven.”  
“Dude, I love cookies, I am so down.” She laughed and hooked her elbow in mine, dragging me towards the kitchen.  
“We are going to get along just fine, Ana.”


	6. Imprints and Promises

After I had my fill of Emily’s delicious cookies, the group migrated to the living room. I found out that Sam and Emily were engaged, Jake and Embry were super good friends, and Paul was kind of a douche. I was laughing at a joke Jared had made, dude was funny, when I noticed Jake standing in the doorway leading outside. As his eyes caught mine, he jerked his head toward the door. Now I might be socially awkward, but I feel like that is kind of a universal signal. I quickly excused myself, stepping over limbs and trying not to trip. I passed by his huge form and made my way out into the front yard. He smelled like gasoline, but it was surprisingly intoxicating.   
“We need to talk.” Again, the sound of his voice made me shiver. I really needed to get over this.   
“Yeah, I guess we do.” Great response Ana, real intelligent.  
“You’re my imprint.” Him saying I was his anything was so incredibly pleasing to hear, but that particular thing rang a few bells in my mind.  
“I read something about that. It’s like a soulmate thing?”  
“Kind of. I just wanted to tell you that I don’t think that we will, you know, be involved like that.” That threw me for a loop.  
“Uh, why? Isn’t that what it means? That we were made for each other?” I was trying so hard to understand what he meant. I was freaked out about the whole thing too, but that didn’t mean that being together was completely out of the picture.  
He sighed and pulled his hand down his face. “I’m, uh, I’m in love with your cousin.”  
“I’m sorry, what? You’re dating my cousin?! I thought you guys weren’t even friends anymore, did I miss an incredibly important moment, or am I just unaware of the subtle intricacies of teenage life and romance?” His face took on a multitude of different expressions while I was talking and he finally settled on anger.   
“No! We’re not dating, but that doesn’t mean that I am not in love with her or that she isn’t in love with me, it’s complicated, and you showing up doesn’t help at all!” He yelled, and suddenly I wasn’t confused, just sad.   
“Oh. Um, okay then. I’ll leave you alone.” I turned around and walked toward the forest, the same spot that I had left the day before.  
He grabbed my wrist and said, “Wait, Ana, I didn’t mean that,” but I shook off his grip and bolted into the comfort of the trees. 

I ran until I reached a familiar spot, and I sat back down into the tree nook I had cried in the day before. I felt tears well up in my eyes, but I shoved down the urge to cry. I had been crying enough lately. Why was I basing my self-worth off of what two people thought? I was the daughter of the King of the Underworld. I fought against Titans, giants, and the earth herself. And yet, even though I had accomplished so fucking much, it still hurt that my only mortal cousin, and the man I was literally meant to be with, didn’t want me around.   
I stared down at the mark on my wrist. It was a tiny wolf with a bone in its mouth. It was stupidly symbolic, and it made my heart ache.   
A twig snapped, and I cursed myself for not paying better attention to my surroundings. My hand moved to the handle of my dagger that hung just on the inside of my jacket. Leaves rustled, and Jared emerged from behind a tree.   
“Hey, Ana,” Jared said, moving to squat down beside me.   
“Yeah, Jared?”  
“Are you okay? Jake said you ran off while you were talking.”  
“Oh, and I suppose he didn’t tell you why I ran off.” I scoffed, shaking my head.  
“He didn’t have to, we, uh, could all hear.” He sounded sheepish, as he damn well should have.  
“Oh great! Everyone got a front row seat to one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. Ugh.”   
“It wasn’t that bad,” Jared tried, and I just raised my eyebrow as I stared at him. “Okay, so it was pretty bad. If it makes you feel better, everyone is super pissed at Jake. He should not have said that to you.”   
“But he did. I don’t understand. Isn’t finding the person you are meant to be with supposed to be a good thing?”   
“It is! Finding an imprint is one of the best things that can happen to us. I don’t know why Jake is being so pigheaded about this.” Jared sounded genuinely confused, and I gave him a small smile. “Do you want me to tell you about the imprint while we walk back?”  
“Sure, what the hell.” I stood up, brushed my pants off, and then offered a hand to help Jared up from his crouching position. He grabbed it and I pulled him up.   
“Wow, you are deceptively strong.” He threw an arm around my shoulders and we started walking back toward Sam and Emily’s house. “So, the imprint. I haven’t imprinted, but I’ve been in Sam’s head enough to describe it. It’s like the center of the earth shifts. Your world starts to revolve around them. You’re bound, for the rest of your life, to that person.”  
“Wow. That is commitment,” I commented, feeling kind of cowed by the absolute dedication of an imprinted wolf.   
“Yeah, it's a lot. But look at Sam and Emily. They’re so happy. I would give anything to find my person.” Jared’s mouth pulled up at the side, and his eyes took on a dreamy quality.   
“You will. I will make sure that it happens before the end of this year.” If I couldn’t be happy with my fate chosen partner, I would make damn sure that Jared found his.   
He looked down at me, befuddled. “What?”  
“I am going to find you your imprint.” I nodded, determined. “No matter how long it takes, I will find you your person Jared I-don’t-know-your-last-name.”  
He laughed, and as we came out of the cover of the trees, he said “It’s Cameron. My last name is Cameron. And I have no doubt you can do anything you put your mind to.”  
“Well then, Jared Cameron. I will see you tomorrow for the start of our search.” With those parting words, I took off toward the road, ready to start my plan of attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ana really likes the woods, if you couldn’t tell.


End file.
